


The Garden

by GwenhwyvarReads



Series: The Exiles [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Homeworld Gems - Freeform, Homeworld is Horrible, Original Character Story, SU Corundums, SU Ruby, SU Sapphire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 03:47:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15040010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GwenhwyvarReads/pseuds/GwenhwyvarReads
Summary: A very young Ruby works on building her garden while she reflects on life as she understands it. Sometimes there is insight in simplicity. Part 2 of the Exiles series.





	The Garden

**Author's Note:**

> [The Exiles](http://empyrisan.tumblr.com/post/174451582794/) is a ~~very gay and somewhat self-indulgent~~ project between myself and my partner, Empyrisan, featuring a cast of original characters. I will be posting some stand-alone stories from it now and then! The characters are all original ones set in another part of universe from the show. For the character line-up with lovely art by Empyrisan, please check it out the link!

The flowers were small and quiet, like her. And, like her, the other Rubies considered them to be likeable but… underfoot. Currant gently patted the ground down around a vine clipping and hoped it would grow big (much, much bigger than she ever would) and cover the … what had Her Clarity called the tiny building in the middle of the garden? The one that was meant to be a good place to look at the flowers? Pah… Pav… Puhvil… nevermind. It was delicate and beautiful, just like the Sapphire, and she loved it. Sapphire was small and quiet too. Currant loved her most of all. 

The garden had interested her from the moment she’d set foot on this planet. No one else had bothered with it and stars alone knew a Ruby had no business trying to make anything except a fire grow, but she’d found herself playing outside whenever no one needed her. It was peaceful and, at first, she’d had an idea of what needed to be done. Debris needed to be cleared away. Heavy, manual labor. Nothing you needed to be smart for. Ruby work. The others pitched in once and a while, but the garden wasn’t theirs and the young gem wasn’t theirs either. Not really. The rest had been a team long before she’d emerged from the rock of her Kindergarten.

Not that they were mean! Well, they teased her a little, but that was them trying to bond with her. Probably. It was very loud and sometimes overwhelming, which was another reason she’d started hiding in the garden. Once the ground had been cleared, that’s when she reached the end of her understanding. But the little plants, the little-little plants that were newer than everyone else around them, were being crowded out by the sharp, scratchy grass. She made an open space around each one so they could grow. 

The Captain had noticed her. Mostly because she’d accidently left muddy boot prints all the way across the main hall. That had been a loud moment too but her greatest fear, that The Captain would tell her to stay out of the garden, never happened. She’d had to mop the floor and promise to wash before coming inside next time, but that was all. Claret had grinned and said it was because she wasn’t half as dirty and troublesome as the rest of them. She didn’t understand that, but accepted it as one of many things she didn’t understand.

The Sapphire had noticed her too, but she didn’t yell. Oh no. No. She had patted Currant’s cheek and said she would help. The next day, a book had been taken out of the library and given to her. The Sapphire looked so pleased that Currant felt a little sick about disappointing her, but in the end she’d explained she couldn’t read very well. The pictures were really pretty and really she was grateful and maybe she was crying a bit because it was embarrassing and it was even worse because Sapphire really had meant to do a Good Thing.

Then she got a surprise even bigger and more wonderful than The Captain letting her play outside. Sapphire looked around and paused, stopping in a way that Currant had come to understand meant the Seer was Looking at things no one else could see yet. She fidgeted, but was very proud about how long she stood (mostly) still until the Sapphire was looking at her again. Looking and smiling. At her. The Ruby didn’t have time to ask why before she was pulled into a tight hug. 

The other gem was cold and soft and Currant was afraid to breathe on her because maybe she’d melt like the thin layer of frost in the fountain melted every morning. Sapphire was stronger than that and she insisted on hugging every day. And teaching Currant to read. At first she put up with the lessons because the hugs made her feel better. She'd press her face into the tickly, silky hair and let the heat of her body, the restless fire burning just under her skin, fade away into the cool, calm that was her Sapphire. 

When she started to better understand the book and learned that she liked reading about gardens almost as much as being in them, Currant didn’t need the hugs to make her want lessons. But she took them anyway because Hugs. Sapphire praised her for being a cut above the rest at cuddling and she practiced that skill with the same determination that she weeded and trimmed and tended her plants. While she worked, Sapphire often sat on the edge of the fountain or wandered around the paths that had been cleared. Left alone, the aristocratic gem always wilted, just like the flowers had before Currant had started taking care of them. 

She thought about the guards who had taken her to join her new team and how much it hurt to hear them laughing about worthless gems being sent to worthless posts. They’s also talked about how her Grand Clarity wasn't all that grand and must not have had much clarity if she could be discarded on a position like this. The Quartzs said that part under their breath, but Currant was a good listener and sometimes it was a good thing to be ignored. 

They were wrong about her Sapphire, but Currant thought a special gem must hurt just as much as a regular gem when they thought they'd been thrown away, so she hugged her Sapphire whenever The Captain wasn’t looking and gave her the most pretty flowers from the garden. One of the others teased that she was a real gem polisher, trying to get into her Sapphire’s good graces, but Currant could ignore other gems too. The aristocratic gem’s smile bloomed just like the flowers did and she was certain she was taking care of Sapphire very well. 

Her Captain needed to be taken care of too. If Sapphire was like a flower, then the oldest Ruby was like the vines that grew around the flowers - all sharp thorns to keep them safe and you far away. She hugged the Captain too, even if she growled and pretended she didn’t like it. If that were true, then Currant had no doubt that she would have been forced to stop. It must have hurt her too, to be thrown away with the rest of them. 

Secretly, she was starting to be glad. For all the grand things she heard about Homeworld, the words didn’t seem to match the reality. Maybe it was because she was new and ignorant and worthless, but leaders who didn’t see the real value in gems didn’t sound very nice. The Captain would see one day that they were all happier with their kind Sapphire and her lonely temple. The garden would be the perfect addition, just like the Rubies were good for their Sapphire. They’d have many small adventures: Ruby-sized and Ruby-warm.

The fountain that Sapphire liked sitting on had been an adventure. Slime and things that might have been plants had clogged the water and she had thought it was broken. Orchid had seen her from one of the windows and, after explaining the problem, the older Ruby had ordered her out of the water. Orchid had waded in up to her waist, wrinkling her nose at the squelching, and Currant pinched her own shut at the awful stink when the water started to boil. Steam, thick and choking, rose from the surface of the water until it was boiled away. The greeny-slick gunk and limp plants left behind blackened and finally burned away to grey ash. 

By the time the sun was going down, Orchid had repaired the machinery and helped carry buckets of clean ocean water to refill the fountain. She stood close, bigger and burning hotter than Currant thought she ever could, but somehow it was as comforting as the soothing chill of the Sapphire when Orchid threw an arm around her shoulders. The light of the setting sun blazed vividly against the horizon and glittered in the falling cascade of water until the whole world looked like the one reflected in the facets of her gem. 

Even after Orchid left, the youngest gem lingered to watch the moons rise over the sea.The fire of day was extinguished in the soft lavenders and purples of night, but the chill wasn’t the nice kind of cold that Sapphire’s skin was. She shivered and laid down in the building whose name she couldn’t remember. Currant curled in around the core of fire that burned beneath her ribs and drifted off into uneasy dreams. At some point a greater warmth settled around her and eased her into a more peaceful sleep.

When she woke, Currant found that it was still dark… but she wasn’t alone on the stone floor anymore. Her team had come for her. Instead of taking her from the garden, they’d joined her in it and were sleeping all around her, keeping her safely in the center of the pile. Even The Captain was there, leaning against a nearby column and looking out at the beginnings of what Currant hoped would be a garden worthy of her new home and the gems who were with her. 

The Captain glanced in her direction and growled softly for her to go back to sleep, before turning her attention back to guarding them all. Poppy was pressed to her back and the older gem wrapped an arm around her, whispering the same command into her hair. Somewhere to her left, she heard Rusty snoring and a grunt that probably meant Orchid had elbowed her. Claret could sleep through a bomb and sprawled like she'd been hit by one. She was a soft weight draped across Currant’s torso and stretched out in all directions so that she was touching everyone. A flicker of movement in the shadows became her Sapphire, who took a seat by the column that formed the opposite side of the doorway from The Captain. 

Safe. Secure. Still herself, but also part of the group. Currant laid her head back down and returned to dreams of spring and sunlight and a place that, like her, was still growing into what it would one day be. And she smiled, because she realized happiness wasn’t going to have to wait until the growing part was over. It was here, right now, all around her.


End file.
